There’s a running joke reference in class after I made a reference to a shampoo bar from Lush that I’m the “Lush” girl in class. Yes. I love Lush. I think they’re an amazing example of a sustainable company that walks and talks it in their values.

I had the opportunity to see Brandi Halls talk at the 2013 Chasing Sustainability Conference. She is the PR manager of Lush and also aired in an episode of undercover boss for Lush. This is when I first discovered them – I had always seen the stores around, but the smell was always so intense when passing by that I thought I would suffocate if I ever walked into the store. (It’s actually not that bad!)

I’m just going to do a quick review of some of their products with a sustainability lens:

1.      Shampoo Bars

a.      Pro: It’s really easy to use and it works. You just have to lather it up and grab the bubbles as your shampoo.

b.      Pro: It’s one bar that’s worth 3 bottles of shampoo = cost savings + saving bottles from going to landfills

c.      Pro: Smells really good (and a lot of variety of smells you can pick from)

d.      Con: Might take more water than usual to lather up the shampoo bar

2.      Toothy Tabs

a.      Pro: Packaging is recycled paper mini boxes with little toothpaste tabs inside. Saves the toothpaste container from being a plastic tube or container that could result in difficulty of getting toothpaste when there’s only a little bit left. More efficient usage of product and less waste going to the landfills

b.      Con: some of the flavors still need a bit of work

c.      Con: behaviour change on using a tablet instead of toothpaste

3.     Face Scrubs

a. Pro: If you bring in 5 of the scrub bottles you can get one free

b. Con: Encourages more consumption with the pro mentioned above

c. Pro: Made with super fresh ingredients and works really well

d. Con: Since the ingredients are so fresh, the scrub has to be refrigerated an only lasts for about two weeks

It’s just interesting to see the kind of company that talks about sustainability that sells products en mass. More of a good thing can’t be bad, right?